30 | DEANE BEMAN


Giving


Deane Beman, the passionate and innovative former PGA TOUR Commissioner, was a driving force in the creation of the first TPC. BY ADAM SCHUPAK


D


eane Beman bought 415 acres of Florida swampland for a dollar, bet $100 that it could be transformed into the first


Stadium golf course and was shoved in its man- made lake by its first champion, Jerry Pate. All of these stories of TPC Sawgrass and the formation of the TPC Network of golf courses are told over three chapters in Deane Beman: Golf’s Driving Force. Also true: The famous, 17th-hole island green


was born by accident, a quirky concession to the limits of space. But what few fully understood


TPC LIFE & LEISURE


Deane Beman (right) was Commissioner of the PGA TOUR for 20 years.


His All


until now was that it took a man of indomitable spirit to bring it to fruition. I never would’ve documented this remarkable


story had I not been researching a profile of Deane Beman for his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000. I wondered, “where’s the book on Beman?” To my surprise, one didn’t exist on the 20-year tenure as Commissioner of the PGA TOUR for the most influential golf executive of his generation, a man who by the power of his position and the sheer force of his ingenuity transformed a conservative sport into


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